Our Role in this Divine Drama

Anton DeWet

“On the Road” by Jack Keroac
Mark 1:14-20

If we can, for a moment, transplant ourselves to the world in which Jesus lived, we might be astonished at how hopelessly inadequate and pathetic his beginnings were.

If we can, for a moment, strip from our memories, the images of Jesus that have been created in our brains through the stories told about him and all the popular hype given him over the ages, we might be astonished at how ill-equipped he must have appeared to others in his time.

He begins his life in shame when he is conceived out of wedlock and is born in the most trying of times and circumstances. He survives his first years, in itself a feat in those days when infant mortality was high, not to add the legends of the threats made against him by Herod, the collaborator who loved his own power more than his people and cooperated with the oppressive Roman occupation.

His father is a carpenter and the family lives from hand to mouth. Do we know what that means in our present setting where we have multiple options for finding assistance if we end up homeless and hungry? What odds would you have given this kid growing up in such a land in such a time of history?

But he not only survives, he also seems to have probably received a sort of in-house training from his father, because at the later phase of his life (what could the life-expectancy have been in those days—perhaps 40 or 50 if you were very fortunate? And it is the last decade or so of his life expectancy that we find him setting off on a journey to fulfill this thing he must have kept inside of himself for so long.

What is it that prepared him for this? What is it that urged him on to the point of abandoning his life as a carpenter and becoming a traveling preacher? Its easy to say it was God, but that hardly satisfies our intellectual curiosity regarding what it is that drove him on and inspired him.

And once he takes he embarks on that journey he has set his mind to he appears unstoppable.

Sure, there are moments when he appears to falter. He halts at one point and escapes to the desert to be alone to contemplate and pray. Yes, according to later legend he falters in the Garden of Gethsemane when he understands the gravity of his situation when he has thrown down the final gauntlet and awaits his fate at the hands of those who now see him as a threat to their power.

But there is such a focus in his passionate journey that one cannot but stand in awe of Jesus. He did not have a proper schooling by any standard. He did not come from a influential family. He had absolutely nothing to stand on but his faith that he had been called to proclaim a message and to put into practice the essence of this message.

The message he bore was that God’s Kingdom was breaking out around him and that everyone is invited to be apart of that kingdom. This “kingdom”, and he used this terminology because the people in his times understood the it so well with the kingdom of Rome overwhelming their lives and their aspirations on the one hand…and the brutality of those in power among their own people on the other hand, this kingdom he suggested stood in contrast to everything that was diminishing the lives of ordinary people who battled to make a living and live a decent life.

This was God’s new kingdom were there would be different standards and criteria for what was decent and proper. It was a kingdom that overturned the concept of success and decency and nobility.

It was a kingdom where the rules said that we need to be gentle with one another. That power was to used to assure the welfare of all of the people. That wealth was a gift to be used to share among all of the people. That hospitality was a divine trait. That forgiveness trumps judgment. That mercy overcomes anger. That hope lives in the midst of love. That love can only exist where justice has been established.

Its easier to accept this kingdom with its strange rules if you are the oppressed and the poor and the outcast. It is hard to accept this kingdom when you are the rich and the powerful and the upper class of the world.

Perhaps that is why he first approached a pair of fishermen bothers as they worked at their craft on the banks of the Sea of Galilee.

“Come join me,” he calls out to Simon and Andrew, and later to the slightly better off James and John, “…and I will make you fish for people!”

If you have so little to loose it much easier to let go of what holds you back and to discard your trappings and to accept this new kingdom vision that Jesus had.

Simon, also called Peter, began that journey on that day and he was set on a path that transformed him for a subsistent fisherman into a giant of history, the very pillar upon whom Jesus would depend and build this movement we have come to call Christianity.

What exactly is it that you and I are looking for in our association with this movement called Christianity? I am so concerned when I think of myself and our future as a faith movement because I wonder if we have any idea why we are committed to this journey.

When you speak with people about their faith you often find that what we call faith is nothing more than organized superstition. It’s a kind of policy we take out to guard against evil things happening to us.

This is more so among those who believe that God is angry at us and that we have all been condemned to hell for being bad and that our only hope is to accept Jesus as the one who died for our sins.

For this faith concept God is a God of terror and Jesus is our passport out of an eternity of horror.

But it remains a kind of superstition that guards us against calamity.

Surely this was not Jesus’ intention when he spoke and preached and taught about how one could live one’s life IN THIS WORLD, not THE NEXT ONE!

And once people no longer see God as their ticket to safety or prosperity—or they no longer see Jesus as their ticket out of hell, then the next question they ask is: “why bother?”

In other words, if there is nothing in it for me then I am no longer interested. Well I have news for you. If your interest and commitment to God has the sole purpose of your benefit you are in the wrong faith. If your expectation of God is that of a life insurance policy you are dallying with superstition. Get a life!

The Christ of the Scripture is a person who gave up his life and embarked on a journey that cost him dearly. But it was a journey that shook the foundations of the world he lived in because it challenged that world to align itself with the principles of the Scared concept of God which he called love.

And he explained that love as life lived in a just and fair manner.

It was not about “pie in the sky and great bye and bye” it was about choices we are called to make here and now.

It was not about a wishy-washy commitment to join a church or a faith movement but an invitation to transform one’s life and to exchange your priorities for new priorities so that your life represented the principles of that love he proclaimed.

If you had power—you were being called to use your power for the benefit of all beginning with the most vulnerable among us.

If you had wealth you were being called to adjust your lifestyle and share your wealth in meaningful ways with others so that your entire community can find benefit in your good fortune.

It meant rearranging our sense of being wronged so we found a way to forgive those who hurt us and to embrace our enemies in a way that they too, can find the space to live fully.

Are we really serious about this call of Christ? Or do we prefer the watered down version of coming to church once in while, serving on a committee, once in a while, making a small donation to some or other cause that will make us feel good for a day or two?

Faith in Jesus Christ has consequences. His disciples abandoned their lives and followed him. They eventually gave their lives to this cause as most of them died as martyrs. The powerful, such as the tax collector Zacchaeus, changed his life by giving hall of his wealth to the poor and returning fourfold the money he stole from others.

Then of course, there is the story of the rich young man who, when confronted with this new world view, turned away from Jesus’ invitation to follow him because he had has so much and was afraid of sharing it.

I have no idea exactly what it is we are supposed to do when Christ knocks at the door of our hearts and call to come in. I do not know what it we are supposed to give up and what it is we are supposed to give in to. I just know that when I look at my own aspirations and my own prejudices and my own fears of giving my life away, I too often feel like this last young man because I have so much.

I am not sure I am willing to give up all my privileges such as my investments, as humble as they are. I am not certain I am willing to give up my house for something simpler so others can also live under a decent “roof”. I am not so certain I am willing to compromise my medical insurance that covers so much so that others who have nothing could also receive medical attention and care in a timely manner. I don’t know about you but when I view my own life I have to admit that I fit the picture of the rich and the powerful in the stories of Jesus. I have felt my sense of resentment burn against the poor and the dispossessed and somehow I still claim Jesus as the light by which I live.

Is that fair? Is there any integrity in such an acknowledgement? Is there any hope for one’s own materialism and greed at the expense of sharing what we have others? Are we truly interested in God’s Kingdom or are we just interested in the wrappings of our Good News gift from God at the cost of its content?

I don’t know…and yet, I strive to follow him. I will continue to evaluate my faith and ask myself what it is that I can do to give more of myself and my wealth and my power to help others. But I know, in my heart of hearts, that Paul is right when he says:

“1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing…[1 Corinthians 13:1-3]

My prayer is that we continue to journey together in our quest to adapt and shape our lives encouraging each other to shed our greed and self interest as we learn what it is to embrace God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Let do this is Jesus’ name. Amen.